by Kevin Manahan, USA TODAY Sports

by Kevin Manahan, USA TODAY Sports

ATTLEBORO, Mass. - Carlos Ortiz appeared in court Tuesday and, in the span of approximately three minutes, he agreed to remain in jail without bail and was whisked back to lockup.

Little did the media and onlookers know at the time, but the skinny 27-year-old from Bristol, Conn., previously seen weeping before a Connecticut judge, apparently is shaping up as the prosecution's star witness in the murder case against former New England Patriots tight end Aaron Hernandez.

In documents filed in Florida and obtained Tuesday by the Associated Press, Ortiz told police that Ernest Wallace said Hernandez fired the shots that killed Odin Lloyd, a 27-year-old semipro football player and Hernandez's associate. The documents, according to the AP, also revealed that police found that a vehicle wanted in a double homicide in Boston in 2012 was rented in Hernandez's name.

The Florida documents were used to justify searches of the Miramar, Fla., home of Wallace, who prosecutors say was the fourth man in the car that night.

According to the documents obtained by the AP, Ortiz gave the following account of Lloyd's death: Ortiz told police that, after the three men picked up Lloyd at his home in Boston, they all headed toward Hernandez's home in North Attleborough, Mass. Ortiz said Hernandez had been upset that Lloyd had been "chilling" with people Hernandez didn't like, but the two men shook hands and seemed to put the disagreement behind them.

Ortiz said the car soon stopped and the other three men got out to urinate. Ortiz said he heard gunshots before Hernandez and Wallace got back into the car without Lloyd and the vehicle sped away.

Hernandez, being held without bail, has pleaded not guilty to murder and five weapons charges. Ortiz remains in jail, charged with illegal possession of a firearm. Wallace also is being held without bail, charged with being an accessory after the fact.

Prosecutors have said Hernandez "orchestrated" the killing, but have resisted saying he is the shooter.

"All we've done is charge is Aaron Hernandez with murder," Bristol County (Mass.) District Attorney Samuel Sutter said Monday. "As far as the specifics about who was the shooter and who might have been a joint venturer, it's too early to say. The investigation is ongoing."

Messages left for Hernandez's attorney, Michael Fee, and Ortiz's attorney, John Connors, were not returned Tuesday.

Ortiz told police he couldn't see who fired the shots because it was dark. At Hernandez's home, Ortiz said, Wallace asked him to get a small gun from under the driver's seat. Ortiz said he did and gave it to Hernandez once they were inside.

Prosecutors said that surveillance video from Hernandez's home shows that he was driving the car when it returned.

Ortiz said he then went to sleep, and when he woke up in the afternoon, according to his account, the three men returned the Altima and rented a Chrysler 300, then returned to Hernandez's home. Ortiz and Wallace then went to the apartment in Franklin that Hernandez and other football players used. Later that day, Wallace and Ortiz drove to Bristol. Ortiz told police Wallace said Hernandez shot Lloyd.

Prosecutors said the gun used in the killing has not been found.

Chris Dearborn, a criminal law professor at Suffolk University in Boston, believes prosecutors eventually will offer Ortiz immunity to testify against Hernandez. But things still could get complicated, he said.

With anything short of immunity, Ortiz could invoke the Fifth Amendment in a state with strong protections against self-incrimination. With immunity, Ortiz still could refuse to testify and be held in contempt, said Dearborn, a former public defender and defense attorney.

Why would Ortiz refuse to testify with immunity? He might regret what he has told police, might worry that people will think he's a snitch, or he might fear revenge, Dearborn said.

And there's one more possible complication: "Remember, he's trying to save himself, too," Dearborn said. "That's why we have trials and cross-examination - to determine who's telling the truth."

In 156 pages of documents unsealed by a Massachusetts judge Tuesday and obtained by USA TODAY Sports, prosecutors revealed Ortiz admitted he was with Hernandez on the night of Lloyd was killed. In those documents, police said Ortiz was the tipster who told investigators about Hernandez's "flop house" apartment in Franklin.

Ortiz said he inadvertently left his cell phone at the apartment, and police, using a search warrant, located the phone in sofa cushions. Also found at the apartment during searches were several boxes of ammunition, police said. In a Hummer, which belonged to Hernandez and was parked at the apartment complex, police said they found a loaded .45 caliber Glock magazine in the console.

Earlier in the day, Connors had solved one of the case's mysteries by saying that Hernandez's older brother, D.J., was the link between Aaron Hernandez and his client. Ortiz and D.J. Hernandez - both 27 - had played basketball together when they were high school freshmen in Bristol, Conn.

D.J. Hernandez is currently a tight ends coach for the University of Iowa.

When Ortiz was arrested on June 28, he and D.J. Hernandez and Ortiz were Facebook friends, and Cesar Sanchez, who said he was a friend of Ortiz's, told USA TODAY Sports that Ortiz said "he went the mansion to hang out" with Aaron Hernandez often. He was referring to Hernandez's residence in North Attleborough.

Sanchez added: "He never told me anything he did over there. He just told me he used to go up there and just hang out with him. That's it."

On Tuesday, with Connors at his side, Ortiz agreed to be held without bail until Aug. 14, when he will appear in court again.

Connors said, for now, Ortiz agreed to be held without bail for two reasons - he's indigent and "couldn't make bail if it were even $10,000 or $20,000" and because Connors needs time to obtain court documents. A judge Tuesday approved Connors' motion for discovery on several items, including search warrants and affidavits - including the documents released Tuesday.

When asked if his client was talking to prosecutors, Connors said, "He's talking to me." But apparently Ortiz is talking to investigators and prosecutors, too.

The Massachusetts documents showed that Hernandez was a suspect from the start of the investigation into the June 17 homicide, with police alarmed by his apparent lack of concern for a dead friend.

The quick work by investigators, detailed in the paperwork, enabled police to obtain search warrants for Hernandez's home in North Attleborough, the apartment in Franklin, several vehicles and his locker in the New England Patriots locker room at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Mass.

In the documents released in Attleboro, Mass. police said that when they arrived at Hernandez's home at 10:30 p.m. ET on June 17, a half-mile from the crime scene, to notify him of the death of Lloyd and to ask about a car Hernandez had rented for his buddy, Hernandez immediately became defensive and asked, "What's with all the questions?"

Police say Lloyd was shot in the early morning hours of June 17 and his body was found by a jogger at approximately 5:30 p.m. that day.

When asked when he had last seen Lloyd, Hernandez admitted he had been "up his way" the previous night. But Hernandez quickly became agitated and told police they would need to speak with his attorney. He went back into his house, slammed and locked the door, police said. Minutes later, he unlocked the door and approached police with his lawyer's business card, police said in the documents.

When told "this is a death investigation," Hernandez didn't ask whose death. He went back into his house, slammed the door and locked it again. In the documents, police observed, "Mr. Hernandez's demeanor did not indicate any concern for the death of any person."

After contacting his lawyer, Hernandez later agreed to speak with police and went to the North Attleborough police station to be interviewed.

Dearborn said Hernandez's behavior toward the police should not be taken as a show of guilt.

"He grew up in a tough area, Bristol, and probably had some dealings with police," Dearborn said. "I've had clients that have not had good experiences with the police and it shapes how they feel toward them. It's not right or wrong, it's just their experience."

While Hernandez was hostile, police said Jenkins cried when she was told of Lloyd's death.

Much of the information contained in the Attleboro documents was presented by prosecutors at Hernandez's arraignment. But there were some nuggets previously undisclosed:

- In a search of Hernandez's home, police removed a safe that contained a scale and a plate. It's common drug dealer paraphernalia, but police don't make that connection in the paperwork.

- Jenkins told police that Lloyd used marijuana and was a marijuana dealer, police said. Jenkins told police that Lloyd's phone was constantly ringing and he was constantly talking in "lingo" that led her to believe the conversations were about marijuana sales.

- Police were able to determine the likely time of death from a witness who said he was sitting in his car approximately 200 yards from the crime scene. While on his regular break ‚?? between 3 a.m. and 3:30 a.m. - on his overnight shift, he said he heard three gunshots and a car door slamming.

- Surveillance video shows three men, believed to be Hernandez, Ortiz and Wallace leave Hernandez's home in a silver Niassan Altima at approximately 1:09 a.m. on June 17. Before leaving, one man appears to hand Hernandez "a white rope-like item" from the trunk, police said. The car returns to Hernandez's home at 3:26 a.m., police said.

- Police said surveillance video from a camera at a home across the street from Lloyd's house on Fayston Street in Boston determined that Lloyd got into the car with Hernandez, Ortiz and Wallace at 2:33 a.m. Three surveillance cameras at businesses near the crime scene also were used by investigators in tracking the car and creating a timeline.

- Massachusetts State Police ballistic experts determined that the five .45 caliber casings found near Lloyd's body and the casing found in a car rented by Hernandez were fired from the same unknown .45 caliber handgun.

- Witnesses at Rumor Nightclub in Boston told police they observed Hernandez with Lloyd on the night of June 14, when, prosecutors say, Lloyd angered Hernandez by talking to the wrong people. Hernandez, a witness told police, appeared to have a handgun in his waistband that night.